Monthly Archives: February 2012

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School board candidates would be able to raise more money per donor starting in the 2015 election under a recommendation Thursday by the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission. Daily News,

The panel voted to increase the donation cap for Los Angeles Unified candidates to $1,100, up from the current $1,000 to account for inflation. But the commission deferred a similar move for candidates for City Council and other city offices, saying it needed more study.

Family friend Reza Helali demonstrates the difficulty of pushing Mahdokht Nakhost over a section of buckled sidewalk in front of her home in Northridge on Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012. Dana Bartholomew in the Daily News.
Each year, the sidewalk grows like a weed in front of Ahmad and Mahdokht Nakhost’s house.

The buckled walkway, pushed up by a giant Aleppo pine, resembles the latest skateboard ramp.

Except the Northridge couple are both in their 80s, both disabled, and have been twice turned down by the city of Los Angeles to put the fix on their sidewalk Styx.

Tensions over newly drawn council district boundaries erupted Wednesday night as the redistricting commission prepared to finalize the map and send it off for City Council approval. The panel adopted, basicallly, the map that has been circulated with only minor changes.Dakota Smith in the Daily News.

Hundreds of speakers packed City Hall chambers to speak out against the lines, with the the majority of criticism heard over decisions in downtown, Westchester, Koreatown and the San Fernando Valley.

The commission was expected to debate the lines late into the night, and it had not taken a vote on the new map by the Daily News’ deadline.

The city is evicting the operator of its pro shop and driving range at the Sepulveda Golf Complex in Encino on March 1 – the latest in a string of concession fights at L.A.’s public golf courses. Daily News.

Ready Golf has been operating the pro shop on a month-to-month contract since 2001 and battling with the Department of Recreation and Parks over utility payments. The company filed a lawsuit Wednesday to block the eviction.

Democratic Reps. Howard Berman and Brad Sherman and Republican candidate Mark Reed faced off in Tarzana on Tuesday night as part of the heated race for the newly drawn San Fernando Valley 30th congressional district seat. Dakota Smith in the Daily News.

Held at the Temple Judea and hosted by the Jewish Journal, topics at the debate – one of a half dozen held so far this year – ranged from foreign policy to the nation’s unemployment rate.

Off the bat, the issue of Israel – and the country’s tensions with Iran – was put to all the candidates, with all three backing tough sanctions against Iran, as well as the threat of military action.